Vacillating between "how horrendous" and "how hilarious," I go back into that academic anxiety over whether one is getting the joke, or thinking one is getting the joke when the joke is actually on the person thinking they are getting the joke, or maybe it's not a joke at all, or... Time for some People magazine, or at the very least Dickens!

I usually have a severe allergic reaction to most things Zizek, but I actually really liked this. I think you said it best, thinking of him as a kind of "aphoristic" philosopher makes the most sense, and allows one to appreciate, from time to time, at least, what he's trying to do.

About Me

I have published four novels and two books about eighteenth-century British literature; my latest book is "Reading Style: A Life in Sentences." I teach in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.